Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

Attendees walk on the illuminated runway following Alexander Wang's “AW Collection 1” presentation at the Rockefeller Center in New York, U.S., May 31, 2019. (Photo by /Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Operations & Exercises, 1st place. An RAF Voyager aircraft sits in the harsh winter weather at Mount Pleasant Complex, Falkland Islands, while personnel work to ensure the snow is cleared. (Photo by Sgt Andy Holmes/2020 RAF Photo Competition)

Jamaica's Tissanna Hickling competes in the Women's Long Jump heats at the 2019 IAAF Athletics World Championships at the Khalifa International stadium in Doha on October 5, 2019. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

Marshalls try to get their hands on a streaker as golfers Michael Campbell of New Zealand and Paul McGinley of Ireland play the World Match Play final at Wentworth golf club some 20 miles west of London, 18 September 2005. Campbell won the title at the 17th hole. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP Photo)

American film star Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jean Mortenson or Norma Jean Baker). (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images). 1952

Dancers at the Windmill Theatre in London, England practice a routine wearing gas masks and hard-hats with their costumes, 1940. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

In this image released by World Press Photo, Thursday April 15, 2021, by Ami Vitale for CNN, titled Rescue of Giraffes from Flooding Island, which won the first prize in the Nature Singles category, shows A Rothschild's giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) is transported to safety in a custom-built barge from a flooded Longicharo Island, Lake Baringo, in western Kenya, on Dec. 3, 2020. (Photo by Ami Vitale for CNN, World Press Photo via AP Photo)